Caravanserai of Sadal Saltaneh

A large Caravanserai located in the Qazvin city. Built during the Qajar era and it is currently the biggest urban caravanserai complex, that is called the Caravanserai of Sadal Saltaneh. It is one of Persia's best preserved urban caravanserais and this caravanserai has a very beautiful historical area. The builder (patron) of this large caravanserai was a person by the name Sa'd al-Saltaneh Isfahani, Qazvin governor during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah, for whom the caravanserai is named after.

 

Description

In the recent years, the caravanserai has been renovated, and as a result, some parts of the caravanserai give off a rather modern feeling. Like most other caravanserais of Iran, this caravanserai has lost its original usage and is now mostly an authentic historic landmark of the city. The calm and covered bazaar of this complex is full of small shops offering jewelry, handicrafts, carpets, paintings, and ceramics as well as cafes and restaurants in a relaxing atmosphere.

One of the few Iranian caravanserais that contains several bathrooms, saray, arcade is the Caravanserai of Sadal Saltaneh. This big urban caravanserai has also shotor khan, chahar souq, Rasteh, mosque, tea house and so on. This caravanserai functioned as a trade house. This historical monument was initially registered in the subset of Qazvin bazaar on December 8, 1937, then it was separately registered under the current name.

Architecture

The caravanserai is built on a square plan, has 4 iwans facing a courtyard. The interiors are decorated with Muqarnas and Rasmi bandi. The Hujrehs, or the rooms for the travelers, are situated one meter above the courtyard ground level. The Hashti behind the southern iwan has the largest gonbad, with 4 semi-domes adjacent to it. The eastern-western axis of the Hashti is called Dalan-i Qeisariyeh or "Caesar's Hall", and the north-south axis of the Caravanserai's Hashti is named Dalan-i Ghahremani or "Ghahremani Hall". The former is connected to the "Bazaar of Vizir" of the city. There are also two smaller courtyards in the east and west of the Caravanserai.